ECONOMICS >Turkey to help restructure Damascus, exporters say

Turkey is the foremost candidate for the reconstruction of Syria, Chairman of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM), Mehmet Büyükekşi, has said.

Büyükekşi attended a meeting to promote the third Bosphorus Regional Partnership Summit, which will be held between Dec. 13 and 15 in Istanbul.

Syria is a country that has been ravaged, Büyükekşi said. “Turkey is the biggest candidate both for the repair and reconstruction of this country. I think we will hopefully develop good relations with Syria again when peace, democracy and rest comes to the country,” Büyükekşi said.

Ministers and high-level bureaucrats from nearby, regional countries such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Malasia and Jordan will be attending the summit along with Turkish diplomats. The summit will host important cooperations in its third year which includes the Russian Federation Norther Caucasus Region Social and Economic Development Project “ELBRUS.”

International Cooperation Platform Executive Committee Member Fehmi Akın said that this project was worth $80 million and stated that it was going to take place in a 140 kilometer area from the Caspian Sea to Black Sea in which winter sports complexes, hotels, airports and seaports would be built.

A protocol for a 10-year-long development project will be signed tomorrow between the parties which also include British financial and investment consortium Flame Group, and Turkish real estate company GTHC.

The project will be run by public and private participation and is set to begin in 2013, Akın told Hürriyet Daily News.

It will begin with $2 billion of funding, with GTHC responsible for organizing its investment funds.